2022 FPV Contest: ESP32-Powered FPV Car Uses Javascript For VR Magic

Showing the end result car, with mechanum wheels and a green chassis with what seems to be a camera window on top

You don’t always need much to build an FPV rig – especially if you’re willing to take advantage of the power of modern smartphones. [joe57005] is showing off his VR FPV build – a fully-printable small Mechanum wheels car chassis, equipped with an ESP32-CAM board serving a 720×720 stream through WiFi. The car uses regular 9g servos to drive each wheel, giving you omnidirectional movement wherever you want to go. An ESP32 CPU and a single low-res camera might not sound like much if you’re aiming for a VR view, and all the ESP32 does is stream the video feed over WebSockets – however, the simplicity is well-compensated for on the frontend.

The software stack, served as client-side JavaScript by the ESP32, is what makes this elegant build shine. [joe57005] uses Samsung Gear VR for the projects, a cheap but decent-quality “smartphone holder” VR headset. The ESP32’s camera feed is converted into a faux 3D VR image inside the smartphone’s web browser, using the technology called WebXR , with image de-warping using WebGL, and vanilla JavaScript straightforward touch controls for the HUD. All is open-source and public, and 3D printing files are soon to come to Printables – for now, we get the FreeCad source, which is more than good enough.

If you wanted a self-sufficient FPV platform you could play with, check this one out – it’s seriously accessible, software effort put in is worth learning from, and if you ever wanted to try WebXR, the code provided ought to be a nice playground. It reminds us of an another cute ESP32-driven FPV bot that we’ve seen a few years ago.

Got an FPV idea in mind? We’d like to see it, and we have a contest for that too! Don’t delay bringing it to life!

5 thoughts on “2022 FPV Contest: ESP32-Powered FPV Car Uses Javascript For VR Magic

    1. Strictly speaking, it’s not a mirror. I thought it was when I bought it, but it’s actually an oddly shaped lens. (Pretty sure it’s acrylic, too) It’s called Kogeto dot, it was sold as an iPhone accessory years ago. Got it off eBay.

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